I had not cooked this fish anytime earlier and its been while since we had fish. I wanted to switch to diet that has more fish and vegetables instead of any other meat (chicken, prawns or crabs) so we got this from Costco. They sell it skinless and boneless big fillets so i instantly thought of trying grilling them. Yesterday we had barbeque planned and so it was perfect time to experiment.


Ingredients
2 Tilapia Fillets
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
3/4 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
1/2 Lemon
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Apply salt, red chilli powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala and lemon juice to the fillets.
• Massage the fillets by rubbing these spices and lemon juice for couple of minutes. Keep aside for 45minutes to an hour
• Heat the grill and apply oil spray on both sides on the fillets and grill them for about 3-4 minutes each side.

Notes
If you don't have grill, you could cook them on pan over medium heat too. Grill gives nice finish.
I served this with mint chutney that i made from fresh mint from my patio garden as starter and ate most of it :) In fact out of two fillets only half i could save for next day and click photo :) I used that half in salad with the mint chutney as dressing. Perfect lunch :)

This recipe is inspired by the Corn Aappe Recipe I had posted long time back.. I thought little taste change in same recipe would bring variation and thats how this one came to life :)


Ingredients
4 Cup Sweet Corn
2 Cup Rawa
4 Green Chillies
1 Cup Methi Leaves
1 Cup Coriander Leaves
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Spoon Ino
Salt to taste

Method

• In a mixie, crush together green chilies and corn till smooth paste.
• Add in salt, rawa, garlic paste and mix.
• Add in finely chopped methi leaves and coriander leaves and mix.
• Add in ino and if required little water and make batter by mixing well.
• Heat the aappe pan and sprinkle drop of oil in the pan and pour in spoon of batter in each appe cup.
• Cook the appe till they become brown, flip and let it cook till the other side browns too, serve hot

Notes
If using frozen sweet corn microwave them for couple of minutes so that making paste is easier.

This one is my father's favorite ice-cream and when I was small, i never liked it that much. Then, it was always fig ice-cream which I ended up having. But last few years, I have started liking saffron for the flavor and color it gives, so when mom dad were here I decided to make it. Then I couldn't click the photo nor could i click after that around 4 times I prepared this one. So this time, i made sure to click one before the ice-cream got over :)


Ingredients
1 Liter Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1 Cup Pistachios
2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Spoon Saffron

Method

• In a half liter milk add in sugar and blend it in mixer.
• In a bowl take a cup of milk and bring it to boil. Add in saffron and mix well till the milk turns bright yellow.
• Mix remaining milk and the boiled milk with milk that was sweetened earlier.
• In a mixer make pistachio powder and mix it in the milk.
• Add in cream and mix well. Keep the mixture in the fridge for an hour.
• Add the mixture to the ice-cream maker and let it set.

Notes
Its important to boil the milk and add in the saffron for the flavor to mix well with the milk.
Also mixture needs to be kept in fridge otherwise it's warmth wont let it set in the ice-cream maker.

Today I wanted to try something new for breakfast, and an recipe I had read somewhere few weeks back came to my mind. So these vadas I made for breakfast using the fresh mint from my patio garden. In the evening with remaining batter I made Dosas and they turned out equally good so here is recipe for both.

Harbara Daal Vada

Harbara Daal Dosa

Ingredients
2.5 Cup Harbara Daal
4 Spoon Green Chillies
4 Spoon Coriander Leaves
4 Spoon Pudina
4 Garlic Cloves
Salt
Oil

Method

• Soak harbara daal overnight.
• In the morning, in the mixer grind the daal, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves, pudina and salt together into fine paste.
• For Vada: Fry them by dropping spoonful of batter into the hot oil, brown on both sides over medium heat
• For Dosa: Mix in water to thin it out, drop it on greased pan and spread it. Cook till both of sides till brown.

Notes
If you are going to make vadas, its better to make them immediately after making the batter otherwise they might get oily. That was another reason I made dosas in the evening when i had batter left from the morning.

This recipe is mere inspiration from all the food network shows I watch.. When I was sitting watching TV i thought why not make something different with bananas that we had in fridge. So i think about koftas.. Then for gravy i was literally smelling and adding spices as per the aroma.. Felt wonderful to create a dish based on my intuition and mood.


Ingredients
3 Raw Bananas
1 Cup Cashews
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Saunf
1/4 Spoon Poppy Seeds
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Spoon Ginger
1/2 Spoon Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Stick of Cinnamon
2 Cup Milk
1/4 Onion
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Grate bananas and add finely chopped garlic, grated ginger, black pepper powder, 1/4 spoon saunf and salt to it. Knead well.
• Make small round balls and fry them in oil over high flame till golden brown in colour. Keep aside.
• In a mixie, add cashews, black pepper, remaining 1/4 spoon saunf, cinnamon and grind it to fine powder
• Add in onion and grind again.
• Add a cup of milk and make smooth paste.
• Heat a spoonful of oil and add in grinded paste, 1 cup water and remaining 1 cup milk. Cook over medium heat till mixture starts thickening.
• Add in salt, sugar and koftas and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.

Notes
Bananas were such a good choice for koftas, they get crispy quickly and they dont soak oil unlike potato or eggplant.
I tried to give two distinct flavors to kofta and gravy. They both gel well as well as can be tasted distinctly.

It was one of those days when I wanted to make something different with Paneer. I had decided to make Pizza but then we decided to go out. So I gave up on idea of paneer and instead decided to make burger.


Ingredients
8 Burger Buns
8 Cheese slices
400g Paneer
1 Cup Maida
2 Potatoes
1 Spoon Ginger
3-4 Garlic Cloves
3-4 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Black Pepper
Handful of Coriander leaves
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1 Cup Lettuce
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Make cubes of Paneer and shallow fry them till golden in color. Keep aside.
• Cook the potatoes in cooker till completely done.
• In mixer make fine paste of garlic, ginger and green chillies.
• Mix the ginger-garlic-chilli paste, smashed potatoes, black pepper, finely chopped coriander and salt to taste.
• Add in Paneer cubes and make the patties out of these mixture.
• Mix maida with water to form thin paste. Dip the Patti in the mixture and fry it in oil over medium heat till brown on both sides.
• On each burger bun, put onion, tomato and cheese slice. Stack up Patti and lettuce and close the bun and serve with ketchup.

Notes
I didn't use mayo or anything in the burger itself, instead served it on side to dip it in. The main goal of this was Indian-spicy taste and yet burgerish feel.

Few weeks ago after getting fresh Methi from Indian market, i decided to try something different than usual paratha or vegetable and so came this puri. The first attempt itself was perfect and so tasty that I had to share.


Ingredients
1 Bunch Methi
2 Cup Maida
1 Cup Wheat Flour
2 Green Chillies
1 Spoon Ginger
4-5 Garlic Cloves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Wash methi and add it to the mixer
• Add ginger, garlic, green chilli and half cup of water. Crush it to fine liquidy paste.
• Pour it into the plate, add in maida, wheat flour, salt and knead soft dough.
• Add couple drops of oil and knead again for a minute. Keep aside for half an hour
• Heat oil in pan, roll small puris from the dough and fry them till light brown on both sides.

Notes
Making very fine paste is important because otherwise the pieces will come out while rolling and the puris would remain flat.
I didn't need to use more water while kneading dough as the paste itself was enough to accommodate the maida, but you could change the water and maida quantity if you need to.

I was on lookout for something more like pound cake yet not something plain for Ajoy's birthday celebration. He enjoys plain cake more than anything so something based of that yet something more richer would make perfect for the occasion. I wanted to either use lemon or orange especially after seeing all these food networks making use of their zest. So when i found a recipe for this cake in one of the books i have, i modified it bit to his taste and came up with this.


Ingredients
3 Cup Maida
175g Apricot
1 Cup Almonds
1.25 Cup Pistachios
2/3 Cup Sliced Almonds
2 Cup Sugar
1 + 1/3 Cup Butter
1.25 Spoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs
1/3 Spoon Salt
1 big Lemon

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F
• In a bowl, blend butter and 1.5 Cup sugar together till smooth
• Sieve together maida and baking powder 3-4 times.
• Add it to the butter-sugar mixture.
• Add in eggs, salt, zest of the lemon and 1/2 cup of warm water and blend till smooth.
• Fold in chopped apricot, 1 cup almonds powdered and 1 cup pistachios chopped.
• Line the loaf pan or any other cake pan you want to use with parchment paper on bottom as well as sides and spoon all the batter in it.
• Put remaining pistachios and sliced almonds over the mixture and press it lightly over the cake.
• Bake the cake in oven for 75 minutes on 180C/350F, covering the top with foil after around 50 minutes.
• Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• In the mean time, over medium heat with constant stirring, cook lemon juice of the lemon with remaining sugar till sugar dissolves completely an mixture bubbles up slightly.
• Pour the mixture over the cake and then take out the cake on wire rack to let it cool completely.

Notes
Covering the top midway into baking helps not overcooking the nuts and burning them. The lemon-sugar syrup adds the flavor as well as a little moistness to the cake.

Last week I had got strawberries to make jam :) But the week was hectic and i couldn't get myself slogging for an hour or two in kitchen so instead yesterday i decided to make icecream instead. I was little skeptical for this was first time i was trying it out and serving without knowing how it is going to turn out added to the nervousness. Glad everyone enjoyed it and that surely calls for this post.


Ingredients
5 Cup Milk
3.5 Cup Cream
1.5 Kg Strawberries
4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Lemon

Method

• In a mixer, blend 1Kg of strawberries and sugar together till smooth. Transfer it to bowl.
• Add in milk and whisk till smooth.
• Add in cream and lemon juice and again whisk till consistent.
• In ice-cream maker pour this mixture in batches according to your ice-cream maker's capacity.
• Chop remaining strawberries, and when ice-cream is almost set ad them to the ice-cream and let the ice-cream maker set the ice-cream.
• Freez for another hour or two to get the best results.

Notes
I saved few strawberry pieces so I could add them on top while serving ice-cream.

This chiwada is so easy to make and a sure shot success recipe :) Even when I was small i loved this chiwada the most, for it was light and tasty. Now i love it even more for it is so easy to make too :) I am going to be making this regularly :)


Ingredients
100g Sabudana Poha
1 Cup Peanuts
2.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Spoon Sugar
1 Spoon Salt
Oil

Method

• In a mixie add in red chilli powder, sugar, salt, jeera powder and grind till fine powder. Add this to a big bowl
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the peanuts till light brown. Add them to the spice mixture in bowl and stir
• In the same oil fry sabudana poha, few at a time. After each batch is fried add it immediately to the spice mixture an give it a stir.

Notes
Add in pohe immediately to the spice mixture after you take out of oil, otherwise the spice wont stick to the poha and it wouldn't get the taste.

Friday I when Ajoy asked me to make Chicken Rolls, I made this one for stuffing. I didn't want to make the red gravy so threw in some coriander and spices to go along with it. When he tasted the chicken, he was like this is out of world :) On the other hand, this was such a minor twist to how I cook chicken normally that I didn't even think about clicking photo and putting it as a blog post. My thought was because I made chicken after such a long time, probably he got too excited. But then, when we decided to invite friends for dinner last sunday, he was like you have to make that chicken again. After making it once again, and he giving same reaction after tasting it, I decided to click photos and may be post it. Now that even friends have same thoughts about the dish, I had to post the recipe :)


Ingredients
1/2 Kg Boneless Chicken
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Spoon Coriander Powder
1/2 Spoon Garam Masala
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Black Pepper Powder
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Ginger Paste
1 Big Tomato
2 Cup Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Marinate the chicken with salt, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala, black pepper powder and keep aside for half an hour.
• Heat oil in a pan and add in marinated chicken. Cook on medium high till chicken browns a bit.
• Meanwhile, in mixer mince tomato, garlic and ginger paste together.
• Add in coriander leaves and grind it to fine paste.
• Add it to the chicken, add some salt and cook till it reduces to dry gravy.

Notes
You can use this to make chicken rolls with onion or just it as a side dish with rice or roti. It just goes with anything.

Since we came here, we weren't able to get the puris for making SPDP - Shev Batata Dahi Puri which is among favorite chaat items for Ajoy. Using paani puri's puri for SPDP doesn't seem right and I am sure it wouldn't taste as good either. So I decided to give try making these puris. Tried few times and now I think I have got the recipe right which gets best results, and is certified by many friends who had chance to taste :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
2 Spoon Rawa
1/4 Cup Melted Butter
Oil
Salt

Method

• Mix Maida, Rawa and salt together.
• Add in melted butter and mix well.
• Add in 1/4 cup water and knead soft dough.
• Grease the dough with 1/4 spoon oil and cover and keep aside for an hour.
• Make round balls and roll them thin and big. Cut using cup or cookie cutter into small round shapes.
• Heat oil and fry the puris on both sides over medium flame till light brown on both sides. Take out on kitchen towel and let it soak oil from puris.
• Heat oven to 350F/175C and bake the puris in it for 10 minutes.

Notes
I have noticed that if you roll the puris thin then they wont bubble up and that's how you want them for SPDP.
Also I baked the puris again because that make them crispier, that is any rawness and moisture left after frying goes away and puris.

While following different blogs on my reader i somehow stumbled on Anjali's blog about the event on cakes, cookies and desserts. I haven't participated in any event as yet, but with my recent post on Mango Mousse Cake and the compliments I had been getting for this cake, I wanted to share it with more audience. I want more people to try it out and see how easy it is to make this delicious cake and hence for the first time, I have decided to enter into this event.


The recipe for the cake can be found here.

The link to event is here.

At Hardik and Shweni's farewell party, there was this mango mousse cake that I liked a lot. The first bite into it and I wanted to make my own cake :) In fact the cake was such a hit that people wanted to leave Seattle so that they get farewell and this cake :) When everybody were talking about this, I was quite and when they turned to me, somebody mentioned: "No, Sheetal doesn't need to leave Seattle, she will make it herself :)". I thought the expectations from me are rising, so i didn't say anything that time, but that was the very moment I had decided to try this out over weekend itself. The one we ate had used artificial mango flavor, I decided to use using Alphonso mango pulp, the taste has come out really well. Now I just need to invite all the party attendees to validate if Cake is at least as good as the one they had got :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Maida
3 Eggs
200g Cream Cheese
3 Cup Whipping Cream
5 Cup Alphonso Mango Pulp
1 Spoon Corn Starch
2 Spoon Milk Powder
1/4 Spoon Baking Powder
1.75 Cup Sugar
4 Spoon Gelatin
4 Spoon Lemon Juice
2 Spoon Oil
1.25 Spoon Vanilla Essence
1/4 Spoon Salt

Method

• Preheat oven at 350F/175C.
• Sieve through Maida, corn starch 5 times. Add in milk powder, baking powder and sieve couple of times. Keep aside
• In a standing mixer whip egg whites and salt together till foamy.
• Add in 1/4 Cup Sugar and whip till peaks can hold. Keep aside.
• In a bowl whisk egg yolks, 1/2 Spoon Vanilla Essence and 1/4 cup Sugar and whisk till sugar dissolves.
• Add in oil and another 1/2 spoon Vanilla Essence and whisk for 30 seconds.
• Carefully fold in egg whites.
• Fold in Maida mixture 1/3rd at a time. Don't over stir.
• Line the springform or any 9inch round baking pan with parchment paper, grease it and pour in the batter.
• Bake the cake in oven at 350F/175C for 20 minutes.
• Immediately take out the cake on the wire-rack and let it cool down.
• In the mean time, in a pan heat 1/4 Cup Sugar and 1/4 Cup Water together with stirring till it boils. Let it cook for another 2-3 minutes and then take off the heat. Add in 1/4 Spoon Vanilla Essence and let the mixture cool down a bit.
• While the sugar syrup is cooling down, in a bowl whip cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 2 spoon lemon juice together till soft.
• Heat 1/4 Cup Water in microwave for 1 minute. Add in 2 spoon gelatin and mix till it dissolves completely. Whip it in cream cheese mixture.
• In separate bowl, whip whipping cream till its fluffy and can hold peaks. Fold it in the cream cheese mixture.
• Fold in 3 cup mango pulp till mixture is smooth consistency.
• Now divide the cake into two layers. Put one layer at bottom of the 9inch springform pan. Brush 1/2 of sugar syrup over the cake. Pour in half of mango cream mixture. smooth it with spatula. Put the second layer of cake, brush it with remaining sugar syrup. Pour remaining mango cream mixture and smooth it with spatula. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
• After the cake has refrigerated for 45 minutes, take remaining 2 cup mango puree in bowl, add in 2 spoon lemon juice and heat it over medium flame. Cook the mixture till its hot, don't let it boil or you will loose the flavor. Take off heat.
• In a bowl microwave 1/4 cup of water for 1 minute. Add in remaining 2 spoon gelatin and let it dissolve completely. Mix this mixture in mango puree and stir thoroughly. Let it stand still so that its warm to touch. Stir the mixture again.
• Take off the cake from refrigerator and pour the mango puree over all over the cake. It should form uniform layer over the cake.
• Refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. Remove the ring, decorate with fruits and cut into pieces.

Notes
The second layer of cake if is of same diameter as the spring form cake, cut its side so that when you remove the cake there is only base layer visible. My cake was fluffy in the middle so when i cut it into two layers, the top one was automatically less in diameter so worked out perfect.
If you let the cake cool out in pan itself, it will stick to the pan so it is very important to flip it on wire-rack immediately.
I have used mango pulp which is sweetened hence if you are using fresh mango puree then sweeten it with sugar.
Even though process looks lengthy, after first try you will know that the process isn't tedious. Once you know what to do, it is easier and off course the end result is mind blowing :)

You may notice that the last recipe I posted used Cabbage too.. Its because, this is left over from the last week's Cabbage :) I had lot of left over Broccoli too.. So last evening I decided to make a mix vegetable out of it but it was only when I actually started making it I thought this would make great Kababs. They are really tasty and very easy and quick to make. I made them in half an hour.


Ingredients
2 Cups Cabbage
3 Cups Broccoli
1 Tomato
1 Spoon Oregano
1 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Mustard
1 Spoon Chaat Masala
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Lemon
1 Spoon Coriander Leaves
1 Spoon Pudina Leaves
2 Spoon Maida
1 Spoon Rice Powder
A Pinch of Asafoetida
1/4 Cup Cashews
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Heat half spoon of oil and add in tomato puree.
• Add in oregano and red chilli powder and cook till completely done. Keep aside.
• In a pan, heat another spoon of oil and let mustard, jeera splutter. Add in Asafoetida.
• Add in Broccoli chopped into small pieces and cook with constant stirring till broccoli is almost done
• Add in finely chopped cabbage, pudina leaves, coriander leaves and cook till cabbage turns light brown.
• Add in earlier cooked tomato paste, lemon juice and salt to taste and cook for another minute. Take off heat and let it cool down.
• Add in maida, rice powder and chaat masala. Mix well. Make balls with these mixture and press them between palms with a cashew.
• Heat pan and add 2 spoons of oil and cook on both sides till they are brown.

Notes
I even had tomato paste ready for I had made it for Rice Bowl last week. I had made double quantity and had used half of it. Its a great item to store in fridge for quick flavoring

As you know with New Years and my jetlag my unofficial resolution of the year is to eat anything but simple bread butter or cornflakes in breakfast :) So when Ajoy got bread with groceries I came up with this :)


Ingredients
8 Bread Slices
2.5 Cup Curd
2 Green Chillies
4 Garlic Cloves
3 Spoon Sugar
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
A Pinch of Red Chilli Powder
A Pinch of Chaat Masala
Handful of Coriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Soak Bread slices in water and immediately press them in your palms to remove the water.
• In a plate add this bread, finely chopped green chillies, garlic, ground pepper an salt to taste. Knead really well and make the lemon sized balls.
• Fry these balls in hot oil till brown.
• In a bowl mix curd, sugar, red chilli powder, chaat masala and salt to taste
• In plates serve the fried bread mixture balls, covered with curd and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves

Notes
If you are not going to eat all the wadas at a time, then keep the bread dough and fry it later, otherwise fried and stored wadas get little rubbery.

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. With parents around, then our vacation, in last few months, I had to hardly anytime make breakfast. So given the long break from cooking breakfast and Jetlag which makes me wake up really early in the morning, i was set to try out something different for breakfast. So here comes the new entry.


Ingredients
2 Cup Cabbage
2 Potatoes
2 Spoon Corn Flour
1/4 Cup Rava
1/2 Spoon Jeera
2-3 Garlic Cloves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Pressure cook potatoes and keep aside till they are cold enough to handle
• Heat a pan and add few drops of oil.
• Let the Jeera splutter in it.
• Add in finely chopped garlic and cabbage and cook till cabbage is brown.
• Grate the potato and add the corn flour, salt to paste
• Knead it well, put couple of drops of oil and finish the kneading.
• Make lemon sized potato balls and press them to make a cup shape.
• Add in half spoon of mixture in each cup and close them. Press each ball lightly to make Pattice
• Roll each Pattice in the rava and cook them on tawa sprinkling drops of oil couple of times.

Notes
I didn't want to make the cabbage very spicy instead i wanted to give it flavor of garlic and Jeera hence i didn't use any other spices in this at all. Its really upto you to decide the spices you want and can vary the flavor each time you make this.